Court Date Friday In Texas Tech Secrecy Case
Share this story:
Amarillo State District Judge John B. Board has set a hearing for 1 p.m. this Friday to hear legal arguments in the long-running Texas Tech secrecy case. Fans of Coach Leach should come attend the hearing. Fans of the public right to know should come too.
“The public right to know is on trial,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “This is no longer about just exposing the way a great college football coach was mistreated and cheated, it is about the absolute bad faith of Texas Tech.”
We already know Tech has destroyed some of the records and has fought investigations into sex assaults on campus, allegations of grant misuse at Texas Tech Health Science Center, even how much the University System lost in the Bernie Madoff scandal. The Attorney General says we should ask for the records from the judge, but Tech doesn’t think the court system should have a say in their game of hide and go seek.
Dolcefino Consulting had filed criminal complaints with prosecutors all across Texas against individual members of the Board of Regents for hiding phone records detailing university business. The Harris County District Attorney recused herself, but her office formally notified a judge to move the case forward with an outside lawyer. This is the first county that has agreed to accept the investigation of this regency secret.
Texas law calls on district attorneys to prosecute Texas Public Information Act criminal allegations, but many claim they don’t even know how to. We were told by many counties to complain to the Texas Attorney General, while they are defending Texas Tech. That’s stupid, but we did it. Now the AG says they don’t do criminal investigations into the act.
In other words, Tech can violate the Open Records Act, and no one is supposed to do anything. The Governor has more integrity than that. He should tell his Regents to let the sunshine in. What is the Texas Tech administration hiding?
“All we ask Judge Board to do is let us put some Tech officials under oath so we can get this case to a jury,” says Dolcefino. “We trust the citizens of Lubbock are like all taxpayers. They want sunshine, not secrecy. It is clear Texas Tech has something to hide or they wouldn’t have wasted all this money fighting the public right to know.”
Texas Tech fired Mike Leach and there’s plenty of evidence they did it to try and cheat him out of $2.5 million. We already knew Tech lied to donors and football fans when they claimed they would do a complete investigation. After months of fighting, we found a simple email and other docs suggesting sworn affidavits may have been coached.
“If Texas Tech had nothing to hide from the start, folks in Lubbock should ask themselves a simple question,” says Dolcefino. “Why would they spend all this time fighting to keep Red Raiders from simply knowing the truth? What an insult to their own fans. Maybe that’s why the school is haunted by the Curse of the Pirate.”
Dolcefino will be happy to meet the Lubbock media before or after the hearing for comments. We will update media directly with a phone number. Unless they already have it.
Keep up with us on social media:
